Journalism

On a flying visit to his native Dublin, freelance journalist Philip O'Connor, the man behind his own media blog and podcast, the wonderfully titled Our Man In Stockholm, dropped by for the tenth media-savvy Off Message podcast.
We chewed the fat on his attempt to crowdfund much of his journalism income, how he uses social media to generate work, his often outspoken tone online, his unique and unusual route into journalism, and loads more.

As the Press Council of Ireland nears the end of its tenth year in operation, Press Ombudsman, Peter Feeney is my guest on the ninth media-savvy Off Message podcast.
Our chat explored the vagaries of dealing with complaints for both online and print publications, his previous lengthy career in RTE making programmes and overseeing their Freedom of Information activity, his love of local newspapers, his predictions for the future of the press and public service broadcasting, and lots more.

My luckiest career break may well have been a literal one. It happened 40 years ago this month. I could be a very happy headmaster somewhere now if it hadn't happened. Though I suspect my break really was for the best.

Just a year into her most high-profile radio job to date, the eighth media-curious Off Message podcast features Newstalk's Lunchtime Live presenter Ciara Kelly.
During our 50-odd minute chat we chewed the media fat on debating extremists, social media bullying and detoxing, developing a media career without having to hustle, taking over a big show after an equally big controversy, and loads more.

The seventh media-friendly Off Message podcast - Off Message #50 overall...hurrah! - is with Nadine O'Regan, Books and Arts Editor and current (no relation) Off Message columnist with the Sunday Business Post.
During our chat, Nadine discussed how it felt to recently have her long-running Today FM show, Songs In The Key Of Life, rather unceremoniously dropped by the station; her own not insignificant role in the globally successful West Cork podcast; growing up in a household steeped in print journalism; her own very peculiar roundabout route into the business, and much more.

The fifth media-curious Off Message podcast is with Deirdre O'Shaughnessy of Cork's 96fm. Editor of and regular fill-in presenter on their morning chat show, The Opinion Line with PJ Coogan, I was particularly interested to explore their different approach dealing with a local rather than a national audience and what kind of items work best for them.
During our yabber Deirdre also revealed why she's in no rush to work in Dublin, how when she arrived the station successfully replaced a big name presenter in the same slot and why a morning talk show works so well in an otherwise all-music radio format.

The fourth media-mad Off Message podcast is with the ubiquitous Norah Casey who has worked both here in Ireland and in the UK across all sectors in the media.
She's run and owned numerous publishing ventures, she's presented her own radio and television programmes, she's managed a handful of online businesses and written a book of her hectic life to date.
In it the podcast Norah reveals the tortuous stories behind her hugely emotional live Late Late Show and Marian Finucane appearances in which she first told the highly charged stories of her second husband's death and the domestic abuse she suffered for nine years at the hands of her first; her recently-discovered insatiable love of podcasts; her real fear that she's now become a news junkie; the trauma of selling most of her cherished magazine titles late last year; her love-hate relationship with social media; and lots more.

Here, is the second media-curious Off Message podcast, featuring Susan Daly, editor of TheJournal.ie for the past seven years, and during our chat we debated, discussed and dissected the impact of fake news, the existence of media bias, the role of an online news editor, sexual discrimination and harassment in the media, whether TheJournal.ie would ever charge for news, and loads more.

The debut Off Message podcast, featuring the media-related wit and wisdom of RTÉ 2fm's music-and-movie-mad Dave Fanning.
Over the course of our chat Dave reminisces about his almost completely accidental career journey; how his RTÉ career hasn't exactly gone to plan; whether he'd ever ask U2 the hard questions; his unconventional advice for succeeding in the media world, and at a typical Fanning rate of knots, of course much, much more.

Off Message won an Irish Blog Award recently. Get us, huh?
I was of course delighted. But now I'm wondering if winning an award like this has any real and measurable impact on one’s career.
It's tricky to quantify.

Violence and the news go hand in hand.
But given their special relationship, are those arguing violence should be reported less simply wasting their time?
Probably, for a handful of rarely acknowledged reasons.

In media circles, fake news is the hot topic du jour.
It’s not a new phenomenon, of course; fake news has long done the rounds in our newspapers, on radio, on television and online.
I’ve been thinking about the perhaps unexpected role footballers’ post-match interviews have played in its current surge.

I spent most of November in Maximum Media helping them produce a series of short videos.
I’ve read a lot about ‘new media’ changes and their impact on their ‘old media’ cousins over the past decade but seeing one of these ‘new media’ models up close and personal over the past while was an invaluable personal first.